Can Hunger Games’ upcoming DVD boost appetite for UltraViolet?

DVDs of the blockbuster “Hunger Games” will include access to streamed versions of the movie via UltraViolet, film business trade blog Deadline reports. The announcement was made by Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer during a conference call with analysts this morning.

As you may remember, UltraViolet is one of the latest Hollywood’s joint initiatives to fight online piracy. In practice, we are talking about a DRM-ridden cloud-based platform that let DVD owners access a digital version of the movies they own.

While many DVDs have already featured integration with UltraViolet’s digital locker, “Hunger Games” isn’t your average movie, and Lionsgate expects its US DVD launch on August 18 to be one of the biggest home video releases it ever had. According to Feltheimer, two-thirds of the film’s profits are yet to be collected.

In this context, the studio is prepared to give a heavy marketing push to next week’s launch, and the publicity could benefit to UltraViolet. Once they buy a DVD, users will get access to streamed versions of “Hunger Games” via Walmart and Time Warner’s Flixster.

Still, it remains to be seen whether it will be enough to reconcile skeptic users with the UltraViolet standard. As we reported, the digital locker has been receiving harsh reviews and plenty of criticism from early testers since its launch in the US and the UK.